At Stuyvesant High School in New York City, where JonAlf Dyrland-Weaver is a teacher (as well as the Computer Science Coordinator), "Introduction to Computer Science" is a required course for all students. Why?

As he puts it, "Computers aren't going anywhere. The more technologically literate you are, the more comfortable you are with the computer and how these programs work, the better you're going to be at just getting by in society. And algorithmic thinking [arriving at a solution through a defined series of steps], computer programming, is a useful tool to help you do other things, no matter where you end up."

In other words, even if students don't become coders or engineers, learning to code helps them to understand and master a wide range of technology and to solve problems in nearly any field they choose to enter.

PCMag and Lenovo have teamed up to present three free live-on-Facebook lessons on coding basics: Hack to School. Lenovo also generously donated 15 Yoga 910 laptops to teachers of grades 4 through 12

In our first session, host Dan Costa (PCMag's editor-in-chief) was joined by the aforementioned JonAlf, who introduced the NetLogo programming environment as well as the two main agent types (programmable entities), Turtles and Patches. In lesson two, JonAlf showed us at how patches can be used to manipulate images, creating some basic filters, and how NetLogo can be used to produce meaningful simulations (and also, games).

In our third session, JonAlf gets deeper into NetLogo's capabilities, demoing some models built with the language, along with some of the innovative programs written by his high-school students. And PCM robotics expert Will Greenwald shows off a robotic creation he built using the LittleBits Arduino Bit, an Arduino Leonardo–based microcomputer built into a three-input, three-output LittleBits module. Pretty cool.

Watch our third session below, and visit PCMag's Facebook page to replay any of the three lessons—we'll keep them posted there basically forever. (Don't skip the comments: Lots of great questions are asked and answered there!)

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.